Precision Charge Control for Isolated Free-Falling Test Masses: LISA Pathfinder Results
Abstract
The LISA Pathfinder charge management device was responsible for neutralising the cosmic ray induced electric charge that inevitably accumulated on the free-falling test masses at the heart of the experiment. We present measurements made on ground and in-flight that quantify the performance of this contactless discharge system which was based on photo-emission under UV illumination. In addition, a two-part simulation is described that was developed alongside the hardware. Modelling of the absorbed UV light within the Pathfinder sensor was carried out with the GEANT4 software toolkit and a separate MATLAB charge transfer model calculated the net photocurrent between the test masses and surrounding housing in the presence of AC and DC electric fields. We confront the results of these models with observations and draw conclusions for the design of discharge systems for future experiments like LISA that will also employ free-falling test masses.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1807.02435,
title = {Precision Charge Control for Isolated Free-Falling Test Masses: LISA Pathfinder Results},
author = {M. Armano and H. Audley and J. Baird and P. Binetruy and M. Born and D. Bortoluzzi and E. Castelli and A. Cavalleri and A. Cesarini and A. M. Cruise and K. Danzmann and M. de Deus Silva and I. Diepholz and G. Dixon and R. Dolesi and L. Ferraioli and V. Ferroni and E. D. Fitzsimons and M. Freschi and L. Gesa and D. Giardini and F. Gibert and R. Giusteri and C. Grimani and J. Grzymisch and I. Harrison and G. Heinzel and M. Hewitson and D. Hollington and D. Hoyland and M. Hueller and H. Inchauspé and O. Jennrich and P. Jetzer and N. Karnesis and B. Kaune and N. Korsakova and C. J. Killow and L. Liu and I. Lloro and J. A. Lobo and J. P. López-Zaragoza and R. Maarschalkerweerd and F. Mailland and D. Mance and V. Martín and L. Martin-Polo and F. Martin-Porqueras and J. Martino and I. Mateos and P. W. McNamara and J. Mendes and L. Mendes and N. Meshskar and M. Nofrarias and S. Paczkowski and M. Perreur-Lloyd and A. Petiteau and M. Pfeil and P. Pivato and E. Plagnol and J. Ramos-Castro and J. Reiche and D. I. Robertson and F. Rivas and G. Russano and G. Santoruvo and P. Sarra and D. Shaul and J. Slutsky and C. F. Sopuerta and T. Sumner and D. Texier and J. I. Thorpe and C. Trenkel and D. Vetrugno and S. Vitale and G. Wanner and H. Ward and S. Waschke and P. J. Wass and W. J. Weber and L. Wissel and A. Wittchen and P. Zweifel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.02435},
year = {2018}
}